Congress put up united front at MGNREGA Bachao Punjab rallies

The former Chhattisgarh CM alleged that the real intention of the BJP was to completely scrap the scheme. He pointed out how the BJP had changed the system of allocating funds and that the new law replacing MGNREGA was just a facade to deceive the poor and the marginalised. A rights-based law has been turned into charity, he said.

Baghel also said unlike the Congress which was committed to the welfare and well being of the poor, the BJP at the Centre was only working for a select few friends.

Addressing the rally at Samrala, the PCC chief Raja Warring said the BJP and the AAP were two sides of the same coin.

Warring said while the BJP has scrapped MGNREGA at the present, earlier the AAP had failed in its implementation. He quoted the example of Ludhiana where out of 1.21 lakh families covered under MGNREGA, only 12 had got 100 days work.

The PCC chief also dismissed all the opposition’s claims that the Congress was divided. He said, since the opposition parties including the BJP and the AAP have nothing, they were spreading rumours about factionalism in the party.

Addressing the women who attended the rally, Warring said that the Congress had made bus travel free for them and still many women had voted for the AAP for its “fake promise” of Rs 1,000. “Now is the time to reward us for what we did for you and punish the AAP for its betrayal with you.”

Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Partap Singh Bajwa, also addressed the rally. He said MGNREGA was initiated by the Congress in 2005 after consultation with all the political parties. The Standing Committee of the Parliament involved in the threadbare discussion before it was passed in Parliament, was headed by the BJP leader and former CM Kalyan Singh, Bajwa said.

Meanwhile, he also accused the AAP of looting the state’s resources. He pointed out how the sand was being plundered from the riverbeds. He said, Punjab’s income from sand mining should be Rs 20,000 crore every year. “Where has all this money gone?” he asked the AAP government.

Bajwa also accused CM Bhagwant Mann of interfering in the religious institutions. He asked him that instead of seeking accountability from the SGPC, he (Mann) should answer what he has done for Punjab during the last four years.